During the year 1835, a grant of £200 was made by the legislature, for the purchase of apparatus. The amount was entrusted to Dr. Birkbeck, of London, and the purchases were made by him or by those to whom he committed the trust. The apparatus was of an expensive character, and very incomplete, and was never of much value to the Institute.
The outbreak of the rebellion of Upper Canada in December, 1837, and the excitement incident thereto, checked the progress of the Institute for awhile; but in 1838, the directors reported they had secured from the city corporation a suite of rooms for the accommodation of the Institute, in the south-east corner of the Market Buildings—the site of the present St. Lawrence Market.
In the year 1844, the Institute surrendered the rooms in the Market Buildings, and occupied others above the store No. 12 Wellington Buildings, just east of the Wesleyan Book-room; and, through the kindness of the late sheriff, W. B. Jarvis, had the use of the county court-room for its winter lectures. During this year the city corporation contracted to erect a two-story fire-hall on the site of the present fire-hall and police-court buildings. On the memorial of the Institute, the council extended its ground plan, so as to give all necessary accommodation to the fire department in the lower story, and the Institute continued the building of the second story for its accommodation, and paid to the contractors the difference between the cost of the extended building and the building first contracted for, which amounted to £465 5s. 6d.—this sum being raised by voluntary subscriptions of from 1s. to £1 each.
The foundation stone of the building was laid on the 27th of August, 1845, and the opening of the rooms took place (John Ewart, Esq., in the chair), on the 12th of February, 1846; when the annual meeting of the Institute was held, and the Hon. R. B. Sullivan delivered an eloquent address, congratulatory to the Institute on its possession of a building so convenient for its purposes.
The statute for the incorporation of the Institute was assented to on the 28th July, 1847, and a legislative grant of money was made to the Institute during the same year.
In 1848, the Institute inaugurated the first of a series, of exhibitions of works of art and mechanism, ladies' work, antiquities, curiosities, &c. This was kept open for two weeks, and was a means of instruction and amusement to the public, and of profit to the Institute funds. Similar exhibitions were repeated in 1849, 1850, 1851, 1861, and 1866; and in 1868 an exclusively fine arts exhibition was held, of upwards of 700 paintings and drawings—many of them being copies of the old masters. In obtaining specimens for, and in the management of nearly all these exhibitions, as well as in several other departments of the Institute's operations, Mr. J. E. Pell was always an indefatigable worker.
In 1851, the members of the Institute began to realize the fact that their hall accommodation was too limited; and in September, 1853, the site at the corner of Church and Adelaide Streets was purchased by public auction, for £1,632 5s. 0d., and plans for a new building were at once prepared, and committees were appointed to canvas for subscriptions. The appeal to the citizens was nobly responded to, and before the close of the year the sum of £1,200 was contributed. The president of the Institute, the late F. W. Cumberland, Esq., generously presented the plans and specifications and superintendence, free of charge. A contract for the erection of the new building was entered into in November, and the chief corner stone was laid with Masonic honours on the 17th of April, 1854.
During the year 1855, the Provincial Government leased the unfinished building for four years, for departmental purposes, the Government paying at the time $5,283.20 to enable the Institute to discharge its then liabilities thereon. At the expiration of the lease, the Government paid to the Institute the sum of $16,000, to cover the expense of making the necessary changes in the building, and to finish it as nearly as possible in accordance with the original plans. The building had a frontage of eighty feet on Church Street, and of 104 feet on Adelaide Street, and its cost to the Institute when finished was $48,380.78. The amount received by subscription was $8,190.49; sale of old hall, $2,000; sale of old building on the new site, $14.50; from Government, to meet building fund liabilities, $5,283.20; by loans from the U. C. College funds, $18,400; and from the Government for completion of the building, $16,000; leaving a balance to be expended for general purposes of $1,507.41. This commodious building was finished and occupied during the year 1861. A soiree was held as a suitable entertainment for the inauguration; and this was followed by a bazaar—the two resulting in a profit of about $400 to the funds of the Institute.
During the year 1862, the very successful annual series of literary and musical entertainments was instituted. From the first organization of the Institute, evening class instruction, in the rudimentary and more advanced studies, had been a special feature of its operations; but the session of 1861-2 inaugurated a more complete system than had before been carried out. These classes were continued annually with marked success until the winter of 1879-80; when the Institute gave up this portion of its work in consequence of the Public School Board establishing evening classes in three of its best city schoolhouses.
In 1868, the Institute purchased a vacant lot on the east of its building, on Adelaide Street, with the intention of erecting thereon a larger music hall than it possessed. The contemplated improvement was not carried out by the Institute; but the Free Library Board has now made the extension very much as at first intended, but for library purposes only.